Charl Schwartzel to face Bae Sang-moon in the second round of Accenture Match Play Championship – Golf News
The Masters Champion, Charl Schwartzel, and South Korean star, Bae Sang-moon, will face each other in the second round of the Accenture Match Play Championship after defeating Gary Woodland and Ian Poulter, respectively, in the opening-round matches played
on Wednesday, February 22, 2012.
Schwartzel gained a two-stroke lead on the third hole when Woodland found water while trying to find the green, followed by Schwartzel’s second-hole win with a spectacular eagle.
Through 10 holes, Schwartzel was having a commanding four-stroke lead over Woodland who carded a total of four bogeys.
The match came to a halt when Schwartzel made a four-foot birdie putt on the 16th to defeat Woodland 4&2.
After the game finished, Woodland looked disappointed with his performance and said that his putting was not as impressive as it should have been.
Moreover, he said that the turning point of the game came when he lost back-to-back two holes starting from the second.
It became more difficult to get back into the game when Schwartzel had a four-point lead over him and he managed to offset only two of them till the end.
The match played between Bae and Poulter was even more interesting because Bae made an upset by defeating Poulter 4&3 in his debut appearance in the World Golf Championship.
He clinched the victory after making a 7-footer for birdie on the 15th in a match which never saw him trailing against Poulter at any point.
Prior to that match started, Poulter tweeted, "It’s Matchplay time folks love the feeling you get in Matchplay when can look ur opponent straight in the white of his eyes & get that buzz".
However, he failed to impress his fans and got defeated against a player who is a rookie on the PGA tour and does not have any prior experience in match play events.
According to the golf experts, Poulter was a little disturbed because of the early charter flight miss.
He was scheduled to come to Arizona through a charter flight, which he missed due to some personal reasons, forcing him to take a connecting flight through Minneapolis to reach the venue.
The incident may have caused a negative impact on his psyche, making him lose focus on the game.
Both the matches were played in the Gary Player bracket at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club, Dove Mountain, Arizona.
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